By Cam LindsayNada Surf are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Not many bands reach that milestone, especially after getting dropped from a major label following the release of their debut album, 1996's High/Low. But Nada Surf are an anomaly in an industry that one minute praises an artist and then the next chews up and spits 'em out. For the last ten years, the trio have maintained a steady routine of releasing solid albums every few years, most notably 2002's watershed Let Go, and touring with a road warrior mentality. Their newest and seventh album, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, is a shining rock record full of deep, lyrical nostalgia and irrepressible hooks, placing more of a focus on putting their live energy to tape. Once again, the great Nada Surf have proven that sometimes sticking to a tried and true formula is the best way to survive in the business. Exclaim! caught up with singer/songwriter Matthew Caws over in Cambridge, England, where he now lives with his young son, to discuss the unexpected environmental theme of the new album, why every band should sell baby merch and what he really thinks of the teen drama that just won't die, One Tree Hill. You're living in Cambridge, England now. How does that affect your relationship with Daniel and Ira? It's fine! Daniel actually lives in Spain now, Ibiza. He's Spanish and is from Madrid. And Ira's still in the States. I still have a tiny, tiny apartment in Williamsburg so I get back there as often as I can. It's totally fine for the band because we're still all committed to getting together to make a record. So last year there was six or seven months before recording, and Daniel and I were over there working on it. But when there's down time it's better for me to be here.
It's been four years since you released Lucky.What made you take your time with this album? The covers album [2010's If I Had A Hi-Fi] worked as a stopgap. It was a way for us to stay busy while we were at home without having to wait for me to cook up some songs, because that's normally what happens. So, If I Had A Hi-Fi was a way to keep us busy, but I also thought it would be fun to do. I had thought about it before. Because we had done five albums it didn't feel so much like a cop out. It could have been worse if we'd done only two or three and then done it. I think we earned a little diversion. The big effect that it had on the new record is so basic that it's embarrassing: it's good to have the songs finished before you go into the studio. "The words are written, that's a great idea! I'm actually having fun. I'm not super-stressed!"
Is that how the previous records were made? The last three records we've gone in relatively unprepared. Some more gregariously than others. The Weight Is A Gift, for example, we did with Chris Walla. We really wished he was a smoker so he would take a break once in a while. We set up the gear, and he got great sounds within an hour and said, "All right, I'm ready!" And the secret truth was that there were only two real songs we had finished, and the others we'd figure out on the fly. It's stressful for me because we'd have a recording session, and then I'd go back to my room where I was staying and have a four-track and giant art-sized notebooks and try to get a big picture idea of what I was trying to do. I was tired of that kind of stress, and it was kind of expensive in a dumb way. So, from the preparedness point of view, this was kind of our growing up record. Another thing that I'd really felt over the last few years is that we had become two groups. We were a live band that although we'd evolved into a kind of loud, kind of fast rock band. But in the studio, I think there was this thing where we were like, "Okay, we're serious now. We're in a studio. How fast were we playing that song?" This was like a thing between all of us. This was an attempt to get back to what we really play like.
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